53 to 40. Can you f***ing believe that? This proves nothing except that blackmail works. Bush basically threatened the Senate with another “recess appointment” of one of his Texas buddies – or someone like it – if they didn’t confirm Gonzales, I mean Mukasey.

Six “Democrats” joined 46 Republicans and one “Independent” to confirm Mook for the post of attorney general. Seven did not vote, of whom five are running for President. That means if 11 Democrats had voted with a conscience instead of submitting to extortion, Bush would now have to resort to his previous tactic of a midnight recess appointment of yet another sycophantically loyal, dangerously incompetent bumbler. Gonzales isn’t doing anything at the moment; maybe he’d be willing to come back.

This is a disaster for both the country and the Senate. In the face of clear and obvious presidential extortion, they caved, and had the nerve to tell us it was for the best. Those of us who grew up during the cold war used to call it “appeasement”. In other words, throwing meat at a tiger in the hopes it will eventually become a vegetarian.

In this case, Bush continues to run the Constitution through the shredder while Congress keeps handing him pages, in the hopes that he might read it before he destroys it.